Private English Lesson Inquiries

I have been approached quite a bit about giving private english lessons since we arrived. That is probably something most expats get approached about, due to our native english accents and all ;)

I have always replied that I don't work (and legally can not on the visa I am here on) , but certain people have been insistant on giving me their nubmer for when I can/decide to work.

Today I agreed to help a student with her english work (mostly going over pronunciation, she understand written english for her grade level well enough). Her mom is a sweet lady, works at the Michocana a couple blocks from us. I did tell her that while I do have a BA degree, it is not in teaching or in any such related field. While I have worked in the past as a teacher, it has been other skills, not academia. She still was really, very excited to hear me speak even a little bit of English with her daughter today.

My point in all this, she asked me to think abut what I would charge to give her daughter lessons. I told her I would meet them at the Michocana later this week for an hour, to work with the little girl and perhaps talk about setting up regular lessons.

I have NO idea what people charge for this, and am considering just approaching it more like volunteering. The problem is, the little girl goes to school near us, and while I dont mind helping one or two students twice a week I dont want to get to a place where I have to turn down her friends/kids from the other school. Besides the question of the visa, I don't want to have private lessons in our home anyway.

So, what do I tell them when I go back later this week? I even wouldnt mind if she and a friend or two all wanted to get together with us to practice pronunciation at the ice cream shop.

( I asked in this forum because I am sure the cost of private lessons varies all over the country, and even by neighborhood. We arent in a fancy neighborhood, but everyone here at least has a good roof over their heads ;) )

Re: [rayitodeluna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

People who tutor English for a living might charge in the general area of 300 to 500 pesos per hour (if I’m not out of date with current prices). La Isla, am I right?

If I were in your position, with your type of “clients,” I would probably consider something between 100 and 200 per hour. Maybe a bit less per person if you end up having two or three students at the same time. Of course then every time one of them doesn’t show up, you’d be earning a lot less.

If you do it on an informal, volunteer-vibe basis, I guess you won’t be getting too stressed about no-shows and cancelled lessons that you cleared your schedule for. I found that this can be a big problem, and was one of the main reasons I couldn’t get seriously into giving these sorts of lessons. Hopefully it will work out better for you than it did for me.

Re: [Maesonna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

Three hundred to five hundred pesos an hour - if only that were the case! I have many years of experience teaching English as both a foreign (EFL) and a second language (ESL) and right now charge $200 an hour.

If you have no training in teaching foreign languages (I began as a Spanish teacher), I would charge no more than $100 an hour, maybe a little less.

No-shows and last-minute cancellations drive me up the wall. Luckily, the few students I have don't do that, and if they have to cancel at the last minute, they know that they owe me for that class. By the way, I teach in my apartment and work only with adults who are at least a mid-intermediate level.

Re: [rayitodeluna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

1. You report that you have no work permit. 2. Your friends/neighbors are pressuring you to teach. 3. You're wondering now what to charge--but you say "more like volunteering".

The bottom line is that for you, working is illegal. Some INM offices have said that even volunteering is illegal without a work permit.

If it were me, I would not risk the consequences of charging for teaching, nor would I "volunteer" in a public place like La Michoacana. I might volunteer to help out a student at my home, but working without a work permit is too risky, IMHO.

Re: [esperanza] Private English Lesson Inquiries

1. You report that you have no work permit. 2. Your friends/neighbors are pressuring you to teach. 3. You're wondering now what to charge--but you say "more like volunteering".

The bottom line is that for you, working is illegal. Some INM offices have said that even volunteering is illegal without a work permit.

If it were me, I would not risk the consequences of charging for teaching, nor would I "volunteer" in a public place like La Michoacana. I might volunteer to help out a student at my home, but working without a work permit is too risky, IMHO.

By "more like volunteering" I meant "helping her without charging" . The problem is, I am not comfortable with opening my home up to strangers and worry if I help this little girl others will also begin to ask. i guess I dint see the problem in sitting in an ice cream shop helping her out? There are several coffee shops that have more tables (the ice cream shop only has 4) on the same street and would be more comfortable and we wouldnt be in the ciew of everyone walking by... The problem is then I would be paying to help someone (is, buying myself coffee and my girls a snack everytime I was there)

Unfortunately, most people that are asking me to teach are neither my friends or neighbors. If they were, I might be a bit more comfortable having a few over once a week to do an English talking cafe with everyone.

I guess I should have asked .... Is it possible to help this family and also explain to them not to tell everyone and their neighbor that I am handing out free English lessons?

Re: [Maesonna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

People who tutor English for a living might charge in the general area of 300 to 500 pesos per hour (if I’m not out of date with current prices). La Isla, am I right?

If I were in your position, with your type of “clients,” I would probably consider something between 100 and 200 per hour. Maybe a bit less per person if you end up having two or three students at the same time. Of course then every time one of them doesn’t show up, you’d be earning a lot less.

If you do it on an informal, volunteer-vibe basis, I guess you won’t be getting too stressed about no-shows and cancelled lessons that you cleared your schedule for. I found that this can be a big problem, and was one of the main reasons I couldn’t get seriously into giving these sorts of lessons. Hopefully it will work out better for you than it did for me.

Thanks for your input! Even 100 pesos per hour seems alot for this family, unless she has a husband she doesnt mention who has a great job.

Re: [La Isla] Private English Lesson Inquiries

Three hundred to five hundred pesos an hour - if only that were the case! I have many years of experience teaching English as both a foreign (EFL) and a second language (ESL) and right now charge $200 an hour.

If you have no training in teaching foreign languages (I began as a Spanish teacher), I would charge no more than $100 an hour, maybe a little less.

No-shows and last-minute cancellations drive me up the wall. Luckily, the few students I have don't do that, and if they have to cancel at the last minute, they know that they owe me for that class. By the way, I teach in my apartment and work only with adults who are at least a mid-intermediate level.

Thank you for the helpful input! I was honest with her (an am with myself) that being just being an native english speaker doesnt mean you would be a great teacher.

I guess the hesitancy about teaching in our home is... How do you know people that come into your home are truly there only for English lessons? Are all your students be referral, or random people like my case that hear your accent and ask you where you are from?

I didnt even allow stranger in my home in the States, so this isnt a paranoia about Mexico thing. Its more of a "I have two young children at home" thing.

Re: [rayitodeluna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

I wouldn't think there would be any problem with a little one-on-one with the neighbor. Neighbors help each other here all the time.

I was referring to larger organizations where you might handle money. For a number of years we have volunteered with a local NGO and control part of their funds. Each year at renewal time they had to provide a letter for INM that stated we were volunteering and not being paid. This isn't a large NGO either. It's a moot point now with our RP cards.

Re: [rayitodeluna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

Here is a little more about my experience, in particular as it relates to getting permission on one’s visa to work: As has happened with you, people I met were thrilled to find a native English speaker to coach them. However, I didn’t have any experience in teaching, and I didn’t find in myself any natural talent. Even though I put lots of work into lesson preparation, the students soon faded away when they discovered that having a native English teacher didn’t magically incalculate them with the language – they still had to do work to learn. But I was working with university students and young adults, not kids.

However, on one occasion somebody asked me to translate a text and I discovered that I did have the preparation and talent to do it well, and that I wanted to do more of this type of work. I began to pursue translating jobs, and was able to get work permission on that basis: first with a university employer, and then, when they dropped the translation project they had me working on, I changed my work permission to independent status.

If you find that you like teaching and coaching English, you could look into doing an English teacher training course – maybe in a few years when the girls are in school – that is the kind of qualification that could get you work permission*. On the other hand, by then you might soon qualify for Mexican nationality: another way to have permission to work without problems.

------ *Possibly. Now that the immigration rules have changed so that people coming to teach English have to make the application at the Mexican consulate in their home country, who knows? It isn’t clear how this would work for someone already in Mexico as a family dependent of a Mexican national.

Re: [mazbeach] Private English Lesson Inquiries

I wouldn't think there would be any problem with a little one-on-one with the neighbor. Neighbors help each other here all the time.

I was referring to larger organizations where you might handle money. For a number of years we have volunteered with a local NGO and control part of their funds. Each year at renewal time they had to provide a letter for INM that stated we were volunteering and not being paid. This isn't a large NGO either. It's a moot point now with our RP cards.

Oh, that makes much more sense. I was thinking that ANY volunteering would be illegal, which would be pretty lame if you ask me.

Re: [rayitodeluna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

Three hundred to five hundred pesos an hour - if only that were the case! I have many years of experience teaching English as both a foreign (EFL) and a second language (ESL) and right now charge $200 an hour.

If you have no training in teaching foreign languages (I began as a Spanish teacher), I would charge no more than $100 an hour, maybe a little less.

No-shows and last-minute cancellations drive me up the wall. Luckily, the few students I have don't do that, and if they have to cancel at the last minute, they know that they owe me for that class. By the way, I teach in my apartment and work only with adults who are at least a mid-intermediate level.

Thank you for the helpful input! I was honest with her (an am with myself) that being just being an native english speaker doesnt mean you would be a great teacher.

I guess the hesitancy about teaching in our home is... How do you know people that come into your home are truly there only for English lessons? Are all your students be referral, or random people like my case that hear your accent and ask you where you are from?

I didnt even allow stranger in my home in the States, so this isnt a paranoia about Mexico thing. Its more of a "I have two young children at home" thing.

Of course, being a native English speaker doesn't make you an effective teacher, though many people think it does. But if you are aware of language to some extent, then being a native speaker can make you a useful tutor, who can offer help with conversation practice, pronunciation and acquisition of common vocabulary and idioms. Also, if you've learned Spanish in a classroom situation, that can help you teach English to Spanish-speakers, which is partly how I got my start as an ESL/EFL teacher.

As far as being leery of inviting strangers to your home for English classes, that makes a lot of sense. My students have come to me through online ads I've placed or through recommendations of friends or other student. In a couple of cases, they were friends or neighbors. I've never had any of the many people I run into in my neighborhood who ask where I'm from and then express an interest in studying English with me actually do so. I've come to the conclusion for many Mexicans telling a native English-speaker you've just met that you need to learn English and want to take classes with them is either wishful thinking or just a matter of showing polite interest in who you are.

Anyway, when I get an online inquiry about English classes, the first meeting is never in my house. I arrange to meet the prospective student at a café in my barrio, and we have a long chat for two reasons: so I can make an informal assessment of the person's English level and to see what kind of person he or she is and if we'll get along. With one-on-one classes, the latter is very important. So far my method has worked out just fine. Of course, I've honed these skills by suffering through many dates with guys I've met on internet dating websites :-) !

Re: [Maesonna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

Here is a little more about my experience, in particular as it relates to getting permission on one’s visa to work: As has happened with you, people I met were thrilled to find a native English speaker to coach them. However, I didn’t have any experience in teaching, and I didn’t find in myself any natural talent. Even though I put lots of work into lesson preparation, the students soon faded away when they discovered that having a native English teacher didn’t magically incalculate them with the language – they still had to do work to learn. But I was working with university students and young adults, not kids.

However, on one occasion somebody asked me to translate a text and I discovered that I did have the preparation and talent to do it well, and that I wanted to do more of this type of work. I began to pursue translating jobs, and was able to get work permission on that basis: first with a university employer, and then, when they dropped the translation project they had me working on, I changed my work permission to independent status.

If you find that you like teaching and coaching English, you could look into doing an English teacher training course – maybe in a few years when the girls are in school – that is the kind of qualification that could get you work permission*. On the other hand, by then you might soon qualify for Mexican nationality: another way to have permission to work without problems.

------ *Possibly. Now that the immigration rules have changed so that people coming to teach English have to make the application at the Mexican consulate in their home country, who knows? It isn’t clear how this would work for someone already in Mexico as a family dependent of a Mexican national.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It is helpful, even if I end up in a different dirrection, to read about others experiences.

I do really enjoy teaching, and am really good with shy and reluctant younger kiddos. When I taught swimming lessons (group and private) for 7 years, I somehow earned a reputation oof "the teacher that can get your kiddos over his fear of water" and for 4 years I pretty much worked exclusively with toddlers and older kiddos afraid of the water for special circumstances (like falling off a boat and almost drowing, or a bad teacher that had shoved their head under water previously etc).

However, just because I had a knack for that doesnt mean it will translate into teaching a language well, like we have been saying. I have been discussing with my FILs church the idea of starting a (free) English class for the little ones, as I have a million and one English childrens books. I have a feeling it would be more like a storytime, deodnign n the ae of kiddos in attendance.

I have been researching taking an TESL course, but I juat cant wrao my head around taking an entirely 100% online course .... To learn to teach. Are those online courses really effective? I have read to be sure to take one that has a certain certification , but I am hesitant to enroll in something if it just going to be reguiritating homework lessons.

Re: [La Isla] Private English Lesson Inquiries

Three hundred to five hundred pesos an hour - if only that were the case! I have many years of experience teaching English as both a foreign (EFL) and a second language (ESL) and right now charge $200 an hour.

If you have no training in teaching foreign languages (I began as a Spanish teacher), I would charge no more than $100 an hour, maybe a little less.

No-shows and last-minute cancellations drive me up the wall. Luckily, the few students I have don't do that, and if they have to cancel at the last minute, they know that they owe me for that class. By the way, I teach in my apartment and work only with adults who are at least a mid-intermediate level.

Thank you for the helpful input! I was honest with her (an am with myself) that being just being an native english speaker doesnt mean you would be a great teacher.

I guess the hesitancy about teaching in our home is... How do you know people that come into your home are truly there only for English lessons? Are all your students be referral, or random people like my case that hear your accent and ask you where you are from?

I didnt even allow stranger in my home in the States, so this isnt a paranoia about Mexico thing. Its more of a "I have two young children at home" thing.

Of course, being a native English speaker doesn't make you an effective teacher, though many people think it does. But if you are aware of language to some extent, then being a native speaker can make you a useful tutor, who can offer help with conversation practice, pronunciation and acquisition of common vocabulary and idioms. Also, if you've learned Spanish in a classroom situation, that can help you teach English to Spanish-speakers, which is partly how I got my start as an ESL/EFL teacher.

As far as being leery of inviting strangers to your home for English classes, that makes a lot of sense. My students have come to me through online ads I've placed or through recommendations of friends or other student. In a couple of cases, they were friends or neighbors. I've never had any of the many people I run into in my neighborhood who ask where I'm from and then express an interest in studying English with me actually do so. I've come to the conclusion for many Mexicans telling a native English-speaker you've just met that you need to learn English and want to take classes with them is either wishful thinking or just a matter of showing polite interest in who you are.

Anyway, when I get an online inquiry about English classes, the first meeting is never in my house. I arrange to meet the prospective student at a café in my barrio, and we have a long chat for two reasons: so I can make an informal assessment of the person's English level and to see what kind of person he or she is and if we'll get along. With one-on-one classes, the latter is very important. So far my method has worked out just fine. Of course, I've honed these skills by suffering through many dates with guys I've met on internet dating websites :-) !

I hope these comments help.

Thank you, your comments are most definately helpful!

(And I did LOL about honing your skills by suffering through dates ;) )

Based on everyones suggestions, I have decided I could effectively tutor this girl (and one or two others max), giving her help with assignments from her school and help her with pronunciation. As far as having other students who have no starting point (like this girl and her homework) , I just dont want to steer anyone wrong. EVEN in a volunteering situation, I dont want to teach someone incorrectly or badly and cause them to get frustrated and give up. I do have experience tutoring, but that was in my own language. ;)

I did not learn Spanish in a school setting, I took Haitian Creole during my college years. :) i have learned (am learning) Spanish with my inlaws and TV/radio here in Mexico.

Did you study TESL/TEFL specifically, or have you studied something else that made it easy for you (besides Spanish as you mentioned) to effectively teach?

Re: [rayitodeluna] Private English Lesson Inquiries

Three hundred to five hundred pesos an hour - if only that were the case! I have many years of experience teaching English as both a foreign (EFL) and a second language (ESL) and right now charge $200 an hour.

If you have no training in teaching foreign languages (I began as a Spanish teacher), I would charge no more than $100 an hour, maybe a little less.

No-shows and last-minute cancellations drive me up the wall. Luckily, the few students I have don't do that, and if they have to cancel at the last minute, they know that they owe me for that class. By the way, I teach in my apartment and work only with adults who are at least a mid-intermediate level.

Thank you for the helpful input! I was honest with her (an am with myself) that being just being an native english speaker doesnt mean you would be a great teacher.

I guess the hesitancy about teaching in our home is... How do you know people that come into your home are truly there only for English lessons? Are all your students be referral, or random people like my case that hear your accent and ask you where you are from?

I didnt even allow stranger in my home in the States, so this isnt a paranoia about Mexico thing. Its more of a "I have two young children at home" thing.

Of course, being a native English speaker doesn't make you an effective teacher, though many people think it does. But if you are aware of language to some extent, then being a native speaker can make you a useful tutor, who can offer help with conversation practice, pronunciation and acquisition of common vocabulary and idioms. Also, if you've learned Spanish in a classroom situation, that can help you teach English to Spanish-speakers, which is partly how I got my start as an ESL/EFL teacher.

As far as being leery of inviting strangers to your home for English classes, that makes a lot of sense. My students have come to me through online ads I've placed or through recommendations of friends or other student. In a couple of cases, they were friends or neighbors. I've never had any of the many people I run into in my neighborhood who ask where I'm from and then express an interest in studying English with me actually do so. I've come to the conclusion for many Mexicans telling a native English-speaker you've just met that you need to learn English and want to take classes with them is either wishful thinking or just a matter of showing polite interest in who you are.

Anyway, when I get an online inquiry about English classes, the first meeting is never in my house. I arrange to meet the prospective student at a café in my barrio, and we have a long chat for two reasons: so I can make an informal assessment of the person's English level and to see what kind of person he or she is and if we'll get along. With one-on-one classes, the latter is very important. So far my method has worked out just fine. Of course, I've honed these skills by suffering through many dates with guys I've met on internet dating websites :-) !

I hope these comments help.

Thank you, your comments are most definately helpful!

(And I did LOL about honing your skills by suffering through dates ;) )

Based on everyones suggestions, I have decided I could effectively tutor this girl (and one or two others max), giving her help with assignments from her school and help her with pronunciation. As far as having other students who have no starting point (like this girl and her homework) , I just dont want to steer anyone wrong. EVEN in a volunteering situation, I dont want to teach someone incorrectly or badly and cause them to get frustrated and give up. I do have experience tutoring, but that was in my own language. ;)

I did not learn Spanish in a school setting, I took Haitian Creole during my college years. :) i have learned (am learning) Spanish with my inlaws and TV/radio here in Mexico.

Did you study TESL/TEFL specifically, or have you studied something else that made it easy for you (besides Spanish as you mentioned) to effectively teach?

I majored in Spanish (that meant mostly literature) and Secondary Education for my undergraduate degree because I had been planning to teach Spanish at the high school level. After going through student teaching (an entire semester at a junior high school), I realized that was not for me, and at the urging of my wonderfully wise advisor, I applied to an MA program in Spanish and was accepted and given a teaching assistant position. So I ended up teaching first year Spanish to undergrads, some of whom were my age or older. I did very well, even though my Spanish speaking skills at that time were not very good, to put it kindly. Anyway, after dropping out of a PhD program, I decided to take up teaching English, as a way of earning my living while living abroad. I found that by, in a sense, inverting the things I'd learned about teaching Spanish to English teachers (phonetics, grammar, methodology), I was able to figure out fairly easily how to teach English to speakers of Spanish, and of other languages too. Actually, when I started teaching English, back in the 1970s, the whole field was very new and not many teachers had had formal teaching in this area. Of course, since then I've learned a lot about teaching English as a foreign language through reading professional journals, chatting with colleagues and attending professional meetings and conferences.

Re: [starparking01] Private English Lesson Inquiries

My comment below does not refer to anyone else writing on this topic, so no offense intended. In fact, it refers in part to a friend, a native English speaker from way NOB, who is currently teaching English in an academic setting. He speaks well. However, is command of grammar, and for that matter, advanced vocabulary, is sketchy at best.

When folks of my World War II generation were in primary school, we learned English grammar. By the time I reached high school, grammar had been abandoned in most schools -- though not in mine. And now, even bringing up the topic condemns one to human obsolescence! The mantra is that Language (capitalized) is whatever people are speaking. Uh huh. Well, the way written language -- and I have only seen this in English and in Spanish -- is being abused by smart phone users in their applications tells me that the phones are smarter than their users.

Okay, okay, I am really p-ss-d off by the know nothings in the USA waving their U.S. flags as they block federally chartered buses from delivering defenseless Central American children to yet another federal detention center. CBS News quoted one resident, a legal immigrant from Central America, as decrying those who try to enter by other than "legal" ways. She of all persons should know that there is no significant, nor timely, legal way for those desperate children to flee the crime, including death, that faces them at "home." Instead I ranted about grammar. A displacement mechanism.